"'But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.'"[11] "If the Queen was a-coming this way, my dear, and we was all of us a-going out to see her, what would you think of me if you see me ransacking the house for all the foul clothes I could find, to tie up in a bundle, and saying, 'There! I'm a-going to give these to the Queen!' Wouldn't you think I was only fit for Bedlam? You see it don't say 'all our _iniquities_ are as filthy rags;' we should be ready to own that. Dear, no! 'tis all our _righteousnesses_. Will you tell me, then, what we have to bring to Him that is above all Kings and Lords? Well, and last of all, as to living as we list. I do find that mostly when we have made it up like with Him, we list to live after His ways. Not always--surely not always!" she added, sadly shaking her head; "truly we are a pack of good-for-noughts, e'en the best of us; yet it do hurt to think as we've grieved Him when we come to see all He has done and will do for us. Them's my thoughts upon that, Mrs. Celia." "Why did you never speak to me--to any of us--in this way before now, Cicely?" asked Celia, very thoughtfully and gravely. "Truly, my dear, I take shame to myself that I never did," replied Cicely; "but you see there was two reasons. Firstly, 'tisn't so very long since I come to know it myself--leastwise not many years. Then, you see, when I did know, I hadn't the face, like, for a good while. Seemed so bold and brassy like for me to be a-talking i' thatn's to the likes of you, as knowed so much more than me. And somehow it never seemed to come natural till last night, and then it come all at once out of what Miss Lucy she said about Parson's sermons."